A modified blocking

I changed the background for a more personal touch and scale down some poses.

Doesn't Even Matter Blocking

My rough blocking pass, I was willingly wide in my posings to see if it works that way, like Raydrick (the character) is really sad to leave. I wanted to sell that with contrasts posings

My new animation

Here's my new animation. A six seconds acting, to see where my acting skills are.

The Reference :





The Concept



- Title: The Divorce 
- Theme: Separation

- Ton: Dramatic

- Scene: Internal - In the bedroom - Daylight
 
 - Dialog: " It doesn't even matter because most of the time when you're home, you're not here ! I mean, yeah, you're standing here, but you're... a millions miles away !"
- Synopsis: A husband leaves the house. He argues his wife for the last time.
- What happened before?Brianna, Raydrick's wife, wants the divorce. She recently met her yoga teacher, and wants to spent her life with him. She just told that to her husband who, ordinary calm, explodes.
- What will happen after? 
Raydrick will leave the house and his wife.

- Sound source: "??"

- Main Character :Raydrick is a salesman, from the first time he saw Brianna until this very day, he was in love with her. He'll always love her, but deep within him he knew this day would come. With time flying by, he felt like his wife didn't feel the same, he love melted, but Raydrick kept hoping this was just a bad time.He's shy and reserved. He has no children, but plans to have ones soon.

 - Set description : a wide and clean bedroom with a window offering a nice and clear light. On the wall above the bed, there's a portrait of them together, happy.
 
- Shot description : Raydrick is packing his clothes while he's arguing his wife who is offscreen.
 
- References : Desperate HousewivesAmerican Housewives... 

- Props: A suitcase, a bed, a portrait.- Duration : 7 seconds. 168 frames.- Frame Rate : 24 fps.

- Limitation : (Time) Three weeks.- Goals: Feel the internal emotion of Raydrick. He's yelling at her but sad inside.

And there's a bunch of non-chosen references (because it's important to shot as many references as you can, to be sure to explore the many ways possible for the acting) 

 

 

Back on the field !!! ^^

Yeah I'm back on the field !! Ready to rock on !!

Many things happen since my last post, amazing ones and really sad ones... First of all, I now have a (wonderful) son !!!!! Yay ! (hi Kahiss !^^). He's got almost 4 months now, I made a break to enjoy his birth. On the other side unfortunately, I will no longer attend AM course, so I'll learn the rest on my own... But hey ! animation is a lifetime of learning, I wanted the highway, I'll have to go on the bumpy roads...
And here I am ready as ever to animate and learn (and share) whatever approaches animation.

By the way... HAPPY NEW YEAR !! ^^

One term later...

... Here I am !! ^^

It was a tough term, I really had to focus on my animation and leave my blog behind for a moment. I also decided to make leave of absence at Animation Mentor, to strengthen a little bit my animation skills. I want really nail the body mechanics before tackling the acting.
I plan to make the next 11s competition, some acting test, body mechanics as well, lectures, animation breadowns, speed posings, etc... it's gonna be supa fun !! ^^

For starter, here's my Class 03 reel...

Filing the gap

Yeah it's been a while... Class 2 is over !! ^^
It was a tough class, but I think I learned a lot.

Let's cut to the chase.

Class 2 Animation Reel




Week 11 - Chasing Paper Final



Week 10 - Chasing Paper Blocking Plus




Week 9 - Chasing Paper Blocking




Week 8 - Chasing Paper Video reference



Week 7  - Sammy Jumps Final

...and we're back !

I'm always late... :S
Sorry for that people ! Let's get it on right away !!


Week 6

The Blocking Plus :

I'm still not very sure, of the first part. I was told to change some shapes in the sliding part and the run. I wait for more comments to be sure to change this part






Week 5

The blocking :


For this assignment I chose to try working with the IK spine. And wanted to try it and see if it's easier to handle rather than the FK one. I loved it !! ^^
I felt more free to be crazy and cartoony, I'm really close from the what I wanted to come up. Although I always was afraid of the cartoony style, with the IK spine it was easier to block out my shot.




Week 4

Reference and blocking of the next shot :

In the pick list I chose "Stewie (no arms) has to run into a jump and land/recover". And I came up with this :

My Planning :

The Final Dance Shot :

I corrected, some foot slides, shapes, timings. Mostly I just cleaned things up, I didn't change drastically from my blocking plus. As I'm learning animation I realize that everything is in the blocking. You have to put everything in it, push every pose the further as you can, even go crazy, so you can scale it down, later after your director/mentor as seen it. Anyway, my big lesson for this assignment, don't be afraid to push your ideas further, and when you're think you're done push it further more, you would really be surprised of the final result...




Week 3

The Dance Blocking Plus :

I changed a lot of things in my blocking. There wasn't enough strength and weight and people kept pointing the fact that I was too close from my reference. Then I read an advice about being going crazy with your animation, so you can come up with fresh new ideas and I tried that. I was pretty satisfied with the new blocking.

Week 1/2

Ooooouh I was totally wrong !! I don't why I wanted to make a 180° turn, where it wasn't in pick list of the syllabus of pyschology of body mechanics... So sunday I had to correct my mistake and upload and planning something on the syllabus. I chose the "simple dance move" using Ballie. I took the reference I love from Esther Twadi-Yimbu (thanks again !! ^^). And it gives something like this :

My first blocking pass :



I still feel like something is missing, there's less snap than the reference, I think it's due to the short legs, that made me make small steps. I'm gonna make longer legs and change the animation with broader moves, but first I wait for some feedback to be sure to not forget anything.


The reference :




Planning :

Week 1 Video Ref

 My first idea was to animate Ballie being hit by something, spin and then settle. Then, as I try to make my video ref (funny, you'll see...), I wanted to be more simple with my idea. I finally chose what you see in the beginning...
Don't mention my sleepy wife, who thought I was willingly falling... lol, good night honey !! ^^

My Class 1 Reel

It's a little jump forward...

Catch up (not Ketchup...)

Ok, I catch up the late, I have busy weeks, between the work and AM, I don't have a minute !

So where were we ?Ah yeah, week 8

Week 9

Concerned Thumbnails

The Stu Concerned Pose

Physical Strength revision

Vanilla walk splined with popping knees... (yayy !!)




Week 10

For my character walk, I decided to do an old idea that I had back to the beginning of this blog, Jacque's proud walk

Here's the background again

" One upon a time, there was a very the young king, Jack Des Deuxpattes, of the very tiny country, Pitibled, which, in fact, was only a house...

His neighborhood was laughing stock of him every time. But Jacques didn’t care, he was very proud to be a king, even for only two subjects, a deaf child, Fha, and his dog, Wampy …

His kingdom was a great land once, Robertin, Jack’s father was a very good king, very nice with all subjects. His only flaw? He hated violence. Even to protect the kingdom, he never wanted to go on war. To avoid it, he negotiated every time, shorting his kingdom more and more, until his son, Fha and Wampy were the only subjects left, living on a small piece of land. Even the queen, Robertin’s wife left for another kingdom.

Jacques was very proud of his father and his principles. When he died, Jacques swore on his grave to be a good king as he was.

One day, he went to see the nasty king Arthur, his neighbor, because the greedy king wanted to build a house for his little dog, Stinky. Jack came to negotiate like old times... So there he is, on the red carpet of his worst enemy trying to be as proud as he could, maybe too much…"

And here's the planning for my walk :

 

The video reference



My blocking



Exhausted Thumbnails

Everybody including my mentor told me to do the 7, I wanted to be a little original and make the 10, but according to my mentor my posing wasn't original at all. The straight vs bend limbs is a little bit cliché is this type of posing

My Concerned revision

My late assignments...

Sorry I'm a little here's a bunch of all my assignment so far

Week 6 - Overlapping actions

Planning

The assignment

Week 7 - Spline Editing

Planning

The assignment

Week 8 - Introduction to walks

Planning

Assignment

Physical Strength Thumbnails

Week 7 and 8 Revisions

Week 5 - Squash and Stretch obstacle course

My planning

My S&S ball obstacle course, it's quite different from what I planned because I wasn't satisfied of the physicality of the "bounce on the wheel" part.

My Devastation posing thumbnail

...and the Stu posing

Week 4 - Light VS Heavy Ball

Sorry, I'm a little late...   :s

My planning for last week assignment :

...and the animation. Special thank to Michel DONZE for helping me texturing the balls !

 

My revision for the excitement posing

 

...and finally a little tuto I made to explain how make your ball rolling with a strong physicality in no time. Thanks to Larson for helping me make this tutorial (I really suck at maths... !!)

...phew ! It was a pretty intense week ! And it's just the beginning !!

Week 3 - Excitment Pose and Bouncing Ball

My posing is certainly not that original...

Let's start !!

Ok now the week 2 has ended, I'm getting into the core of animation, in fact since week 1 I'm into it but I just got my first ecritique (yaaay !! ^^ ) and I realy feel it has begun for me...

For week 2 I had to draw a thumbnail of observation live from the street, unfortunately I wasn't able to go outdoors and fill a sketchbook so I took some web pictures. It wasn't the right way, because the whole idea was to capture life and get the essence to put it in a posing. I'll do that in the next assignment. So here's my thumbnail.

A lot of people liked the number 9, it's a tricky one to do in CG because of the limitations of the rig. But I ended up with this














After retakes it gives this

And my real posing was this one

HAPPY NEW YEAR TO EVERYBODY !! Contrary to what the Mayas said, it's not gonna be the end of the world, but the beginning of a new era !

Hooray !! From this very day, I'm starting the (wonderful) AnimationMentor program !! 
2012 is definitely a great year for me !!

Flower Dance Animation

Last month, I tried a dance animation, based on a feature film video reference (A Monster In Paris) made by my best friend's wife. She did a lot of video reference, I pick the early ones, unfortunately I cannot show the great reference due to her shyness, and most importantly because of right issues. So thanks to the great dancer, Esther Thwadi-Yimbu and her husband Larson Liberlin De Shoriba Diop fir their great work !!

Here's my little story point for the sequence :

"Flower is a mysterious dancer. They say she can  make flower grow in the desert when she dance. She starts dancing at the age of 4 years. This little princess knew how to dance before knowing how to speak. Nowadays, she dances on stage, making the audience cry with her graceful moves."

The Final pass




Breakdown pass





Blocking pass

Speed Posings

I want to practice my posing skills, so I had the idea todo some speed posings and record myself. The video recording is a good way to see how I work and where I spend too much time.

 POSING N°1

I missed the posing. There's a great camera angle that I wasn't able to capture, and the spine of the reference wasn't that much exaggerated. The first time wasn't a success....



POSING N°2

It was better this time, I didn't catch the very essence of pose. But (I hope...) you can feel the girl struggling.

POSING N°3

Those posings are the worst for me, there are not that much informations. The character seems to show some self-confidence he doesn't, we can see "fakeness" in the gesture. It was hard to do, my posing turned into a really self-confident guy ! I think it's because of the smile, too wide.
















The recording :

  

Screen Capture Warehouse

Leavemeinthewhite.com ! No, no I'm not yelling my anger against the world, it's just the name of an very cool site which has tons and tons captures of movies and TV Shows. Usual Suspects, Kill Bill, Scrubs, Buffy, Dexter, etc... A great way to easily get good posings and stagings reference

Just a random pic of one of my favourite show...

A Day in Life of John Lasseter

What a life !!!

Video Reference

Never EVER EVER forget the importance of video reference you silly animator !!!!! Besides, it's a funny step to be silly and feel your character...




Planet 51 Video References - Christian Dan from Christian Dan on Vimeo.

Angry Neighbour Retakes

I did some retakes after I went to the bringyourownanimation session, a very interesting moment when professional and animation lovers meet to discuss or crit everybody's work, (visit the site for more info...bringyourownanimation.com). I took advices too from the 11 second club, son now here's the final result, hope you like it !!

June's video

A funny one this month... Watch your feet on the beach !

20 Week Program

Back again on the 20 week program !!
Sorry, it's a little small. Click on it to see a wider image.

Angry neighbour

May's animation

Hey !

I recently saw A great animation in the 11 second club. A poetic and beautiful story. I have to share this inspirational short.
Enjoy !

Drawing Inspiration from Wesley Louis on Vimeo.

And the making of...

Wesley Louis Drawing Inspiration Making Of from Wesley Louis on Vimeo.

Here's the website of the short
drawinginspirationproduction.blogspot.com

A step

Hey guys !

Actually, I'm trying to animate on 3Ds max (pretty hard when you're coming from Maya...)

A little exercise (my first...)
Tell me what you think. Sorry, I couldn't manage to put a frame counter (I'm newbie...)

Running Dog Planning

I did a little 2D animation to understand how a dog is running and it's timing. I'm currently animating it in 3D

My new animation reel !

Scorpion walk cycle Clean

I did my walk cycle as a human one. Even if it's a robot I tried to approach it with a human walk to give a sense of life.

Hi everyone !!

I'm tackling an animal walk cycle. I found this cool scorpion rig and wanted to give it a try.

Here's my blocking for the moment (in linear). The claws are missing right now, but I wanted to have some feedback before going further. So, feel free to comment !! :)



Ps : Sorry for the loop. :s
I'll add more cycles on the next post

Video of the month

This month's vid is an old one but really funny ! I wanted to put it on top for decembre 'cause I really love the story. Funny, simple and clear, all we want from an animation.
Notice the greatness of the timing , and the rhythm



Go check on the other animation at the creators website

http://birdboxstudio.com/

they're really cool !

11 Second Club - Final

My final pass, sorry I missed some steps...

Here's my blocking plus shot. No lipsync, no facial, and no hands. I reblock some poses, tweak bad timing and switch in linear to add my slow in / slow out.
Ouuuuah six days left !! Better hurry there's a lot of stuff left to do !

CARS 2 ! The Official Trailer.

Yes fresh and hot the official trailer of Cars 2. In the meal, spies and races... and Mater as main character (it seems...)

11 Second Club - Blocking

I change the cam (very dangerous to do it during animating, it ruins all the poses you did...) rebuild some poses, and add some more.
I think the timing in general is a little off sometimes, I'll tweak it on the next version.

11 Second Club - Big Blocking

The video of the month is a good one, for everybody like who was deeply disappointed by the clash of the titan. An awesome tribute to the fight against Medusa.





Thanks to Victor NAVONE for this video. I discoverd it in his blog.
http://blog.navone.org/

This month I'll update my links so you can flying around the crazy world of the animation, between tips, awesome animators, great shorts, cool RIGs, etc...

11 Second club - November

Yes, I'm tackling it !!


I'll try to post every step of my shot.

A quick story point :
"A crazy guy selling free lollipops, yells at every man who touch his stuff..."

Acting REF : I'll use it to set my camera, and of course as acting ref.
Sorry for the changing room, in the first place I imagined a scene in front a fridge, but I changed my mind for a free-lollipop seller.



PS : Thanks to my brother and my sister, my camera assistants... A lil shaky though...

A lil' acting anim

Hi there !

I performed a little animation from a sound I took from the Pirate of the Caribbean 3.

Here's the story point of my shot :

Habion is a Divus Mortis, a powerful disciple of the Power Beyond the Grave cult. He's the youngest of the group, only two hundred years old... Habion is a greedy and pervert guy, Terry Turner offers him a chest full of golden coins in exchange of bringing back his fiancée Melissa Turner from the dead.

The two guys are facing the door of land of the dead...

New AnimationReel !

Here it is, my new animationreel !

Animation Reel - Fahim FAHARI-EDINe from Fahim FAHARI-EDINE on Vimeo.

What's new ?

Some movies to follow :

A lil' foreword, falks I'm talking about animation only. Of course, transformers 3, Avatar 2, Harry Potter, Super 8, etc... are great movies to follow but we're talking about animation here ! Secondly, I'm not sure everything is there, (and some are willingly ignored...) so don't hésitate to leave a comment. And at last, I put them randomly ! They're not classified.


Let the show begin !

RANGO :
Incredibly beautiful !! Fun AND beautiful, Pixar, watch out, the competitors are there !




The Legend of Ga Hoole:
Happy Potter with owls... Less fun than Rango but still beautiful though.




Megamind:
What can I say ? When ? when can we see it ?!!



Gnomeo and Juliet:
Fun, good story... the two great recipies.




Tangled:
Walt Disney Animation is back in race ! We know who's behind... (hey ! Small clue JL are his initials... what ? no it's not Jennifer Lopez !! John Lasseter ! What's wrong with you guys ?)



Rio:
BlueSky is in race too ! Gosh there's so many movies !! I can't wait ! Funny !




Despicable Me:
Yeah yeah, I know I'm a frenchie, I had to mentioned this french made movie, although it has already been in theaters... Good anim, weak story but HEY we french people too are here.




Tales from Earthsea:
Let's end with some magical. Brought by the Studio Ghibli...






I'm like a child in Christmas !! All this stuff makes me think, animation is really THE place to be... Maybe you've already seen some of the list (especially you, american lucky folks...), and I'm pretty sure you agree with me.

For the fun :
Masterpiece !



(Hey it's a little secret but, our friends from Emeryville are making a short of Toy Story, it will take place in Hawaii, but shhhhhh,it's a secret !)

I'm back !!

Okay yes ! After a few month of silence, I'm back to the world again !
Where do I start ?

First of all, I'm still looking for the coolest thing ever, a job as animation, le Saint-Graal !! Meanwhile, I was hired for a small TV show at TOY'S FILM as animator. I worked for a secret project too in August (soon I'll show the final product !).

One huge thing ! TOY STORY 3 !! Waaaaahh ! Amazing ! Once again Pixar showed to the world how great they are, and gosh they're great !
A lil word too, on "Waking the sleeping beauty", a documentary on the Walt Disney Studios during 1984 and 1994, when the animation world was in crisis. Very very interesting, filmed John Lasseter (a small part), realized by Don Hahn. A masterpiece. Everyone who worked in animation or interested in has to see it !



That's for the news... Coming soon, a new animationreel, some awesome trailers, a walk through for an acting shot, ouh... call me Santa Claus...

Full Walk Cycle Clean

Hi there !

I know it's been a while, but I come back with some stuff. A walk cycle, a full one, using the Animation Survival Kit planning. As the famous Richard WILLIAMS said walk cycle are the hardest thing to animate, and I fully agree with this !!

I'm still polishing it, but in the overall here's the final result.

Walk Cylcle Animation front cam from Fahim FAHARI-EDINE on Vimeo.

Walk Cylcle Animation shot cam from Fahim FAHARI-EDINE on Vimeo.

Recreation time part 4

Lights Out from cormaction on Vimeo.

Recreation time... Part 3

For the rare occasions when french people do good stuff, I have share this great video !

A little overlap test

A did a small overlap test in loop, because I'll make a characterized walk with a tail, and I wanted to try.
Not so bad, I'd say. The tail as dynamic on it, and it's quite difficult to handle it, it's not as perfect as I wanted. I'm glad I tested it now, so I'll be less surprised on my walk cycle...

Tail Overlap test from Fahim FAHARI-EDINE on Vimeo.

Top View

Tail overlap test - TOP view from Fahim FAHARI-EDINE on Vimeo.

Dojo Training Final Part - Clean

Dojo Training Final Part - Clean from Fahim FAHARI-EDINE on Vimeo.

Video of the month

This month's video is an intro of the famous new Street Fighter 4, starring Chun-Li and Cammy against Juri, a new character. Forceful and stylish... enjoy !

Super Street Fighter 4 - Girls Intro from Fahim FAHARI-EDINE on Vimeo.

Dojo Training Final Part - Blocking Plus

Dojo Training Final Part - Blocking Plus from Fahim FAHARI-EDINE on Vimeo.

Dojo Training Final Part - Blocking

Oh weird last pose...

Dojo Training Part Three - The Kick ! Blocking from Fahim FAHARI-EDINE on Vimeo.

The Last Part of the Training... The Kick !

My video Reference and my planning :

Dojo Training Part three - references from Fahim FAHARI-EDINE on Vimeo.

Dojo Training Part Two - Clean

I'm not very proud of the clean. The overall is kind of flotty. I'll try to fix it during the final pass (in the end of the three shots), problem is on the slow in/slow out I presume

Dojo Training Part 2 - Clean from Fahim FAHARI-EDINE on Vimeo.

Recreation time... Part 2

A cool small animation with a little robot.

Pocketbot Test by Crew 972 from Alex Orrelle on Vimeo.

Stick training : Blocking Plus

Dojo Training Part Two - Blocking Plus from Fahim FAHARI-EDINE on Vimeo.

Recreation time...

An animation of a student from the well-known scholl CalArts...
Pretty, simple, efficient, poetic.

Stick Training

Our pupil, Yoshi, tries to handle a stick...

Dojo Training Part Two - Blocking from Fahim FAHARI-EDINE on Vimeo.

Kata training

Yoshi, the young orphan trains teach the Kata...

Blocking





Blocking Plus





Clean

Next shot : Martial arts !!

The next shot is a series of three small ones, grouping under one history :
(Many thanks to Esther for the translation !)


English Version :
Since the night of time, gods sing for a balancing and harmonious cycle of life. Earth, Fire, Wind, Water and Light are five gods who call the all powerful song entitled Naturaa, spring of life on Earth.

Naturaa is a cosmic song that can only be heard on the Astral Earth, godlike lands beyond space and time. To go there, Gods must wear a spectral shape while Keepers are looking after the Sacred Rocks, cherishing them as their vital essence. From the dawn of the first day, the Yukan family looks after the Wind Rock. They are the Kaze No Yukan Keepers.

Art Wind is a spiritual guide. The Yukan has created this way of life that the Keeper preserves up to the end of his life. It is transmitted from one generation to the next. Kaze Wuji Do is a martial art resulting from Art Wind. Each Keeper perfectly champions this fight as an honorable Wind Protector.

But the last descendent of Yukan Family, Koji, is on the verge to die…
The Sacred Rock is now in danger. The old man decides then to teach a young orphan the Kaze Wuji Do that will enable him to become the next Wind Keeper. A way for the child to build his proper family and protect the divine song…




French Version :
Depuis la nuit des temps les dieux chantent pour l’équilibre et l’harmonie du cycle de la vie. Ils sont cinq, La Terre, Le Feu, Le Vent, L’Eau, et La Lumière, à entonner le puissant chant Naturaa, source de toute vie sur Terre.

Naturaa est une mélodie cosmique que l’on ne peut entendre que dans les Terres Astrales, des terres divines au-delà de l’espace et du temps. Les Dieux s’y rendent dans leurs formes spectrales et les Gardiens protègent les Pierres Sacrées, leur essence vitale. Depuis l’aube du premier jour, la famille Yûkan veille sur la Pierre du Vent, ils sont les Gardiens Kaze No Yûkan.

L’Art du Vent est un guide spirituel, un mode de vie créé par les Yûkan, qu’embrasse le Gardien tout au long de sa vie. Il se transmet de générations en générations. Kaze Wuji Dô est un art martial issu de l’Art du Vent, chaque Gardien maitrise à la perfection ce style combat en tant que digne Protecteur du Vent.

Mais aujourd’hui la Pierre Sacrée est en danger car le dernier descendant de la Famille Yûkan, Koji, va bientôt s’éteindre…

Le vieil homme décide alors d’entrainer un jeune orphelin au Kaze Wuji Dô, afin qu’il devienne le prochain Gardien du Vent et fonde sa propre famille de protecteur du chant divin…